Hand Made Christmas Traditions

A Family Tradition of Hand Made Christmas Decorations

Every year, as Christmas draws near, beautifully decorated Christmas trees begin to pop up everywhere. In public spaces everywhere, trees are put up, decorated with thought and planning. In stores and catelogs, dozens of them are covered with themed decorations for sale. In our city, there is even an annual Christmas Tree Festival, where lavishly decorated trees are decorated to compete in various categories, with the ultimate goal of raising funds for local charities.

These beautiful trees often involve significant planning and organization, are decorated with a theme in mind, or at least have matching colours. I love to see them every year.

Then, there's our tree. It won't win any decorating awards, has no theme and no cohesion. Those fancy trees, as beautiful as they are, will never grace our own home. Our tree is the result of a tradition of hand made decorations that now spans almost 20 years, and it's one my children have grown to love and contribute to as they've gotten older.

Here, I would like to share with you just some of the hand made decorations that now grace our Christmas tree. I hope you enjoy them, and are inspired to make a few of your own.

All photos are my own, taken with a Nikon D80 and an 18-55mm lens.

Simple Crochet Spirals and Balls - The ones that started it all.

The Christmas of 1993 was fast approaching. Our first child was almost 9 months old and very close to walking. For her first Christmas, I did not want to be constantly keeping her out of the tree for fear she'd hurt herself or break something. I wanted to allow her to actually touch, even play with, our trees. With this in mind, I began a search for child safe Christmas decorations that I liked.

My search failed. What few child safe decorations I found were pretty darn ugly. What I did find, however, was really pretty Christmas yarn. Having recently - finally! - figured out how to crochet, I decided that I would use these lovely yarns to make our decorations. I settled on making simple spirals, plus balls stuffed with fibrefill in two sizes.

We still have them. Looking at them now, I'm almost embarressed by them. The spirals are fine, but the balls are rather lumpy and not particularly round. Then I remember that I had no idea how to make a ball shape in crochet, nor could I find a pattern (this was, after all, in the days before the internet became common!), so I'd simply made them up as I went along. Looking at it that way, I think I did all right after all!

Glittery Christmas Yarn

When making yarn-based decorations for your tree, it's nice to have something with a metallic component to catch and reflect the lights on the tree.

Felt Stockings - Marking the turn of a millenium

The crochet decorations served well for a few years, but I hadn't quite got into the yearly tradition of making new decorations on an annual basis. There were a few that I made, but not in any significant numbers.

The next larger batch of decorations we made were, once again, brought on by necessity. We now had two daughters, aged 3 and 6 years, and we had just moved to another province for what was originally a 6 month contract with my husband's new job. With that in mind, we brought very few items with us, and no furniture at all.

We ended up living there for almost 2 years!

We had moved out in November, and ended up buying a 4 ft artificial tree (we've always had artificial trees). Since the move was supposed to be short term, we weren't about to spend a lot of money on decorations. Most of the decorations that year were made up of sea shells quickly decorated with ribbons and bows.

Making these was very quick and simple. I made a cardboard template to cut out the stocking shapes, plus another for a basic rectangular stocking top; the shaped ones were cut on the fly. The other felt shapes were done freehand. Some embroidery thread, beads, glow in the dark paint and some ric rac for hangers was all I needed.

Thirteen Christmases later, the glow in the dark paint still glows as bright as when I first made them!

Felt Stocking details - Here's a closer look at the stockings.

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The snowman is surrounded by snowflakes made with French knots.
The glow in the dark paint I used came in a tube with a pointed tip, making it easy to write in the numbers.

The Christmas tree is decorated with beads and French knots, and surrounded by glow in the dark "stars."
The star shapes on the stocking in the background were stitched and decorated in place, then edged with glow in the dark paint.

Some holly berries are detailed with a glow in the dark "reflection."

Metallic thread was used to stitch the bell in place, as well as for the French knots around it.

Simple Felt Bells - More easy and child safe decorations

Eventually, we moved again, and were back to living near family. By this time, making decorations had become an annual event, and when living near family, most of them were given out as gifts, sometimes added as decoration to a regular wrapped gift. Some years, depending on where we lived, materials could be hard to come by. These felt decorations were simple, used easy to find materials, and were inexpensive to make.

Once again, a carboard template was made. You might recognise the ric rac from the felt stockings! Yes, I still had some left over. A bit of stuffing and some buttonhole stitch in embroidery thread made for some quick and easy, child safe decorations.

It would be a few years before "child safe" was no longer a high priority!

Flexible Felt

Crochet Garland - With a night time surprise

I made this garland as a way to use a new yarn I'd found. The pattern itself is very simple and easily adaptable. I madeanother version, edged in glittery eyelash yarn, which was used to decorate a staff Christmas tree and was later sold.

When the lights are out, the glow in the dark yarn is revealed.

When the lights are out, the glow in the dark yarn is revealed.

Yarn with a Glow

Shisha and mixed media decorations - Starting to go all out!

Several more years - and moves - later, and my tentative tradition had grown into something much more defined. I began to actively seek out new crafts to try, and to experiment with different materials. Perhaps the most elaborate of these annual decorations were these, with a shisha mirror focal point.

Shisha mirror embroidery is a beautiful Indian art that I was eager to try out. It is typically done with a very light glass mirror, but none was to be had, so I used regular round mirrors found in a craft store. They are much heavier then traditional shisha mirros, but they worked beautifully.

The fabric I used for these were left over from costumes I'd sewn for the girls, and I used a variety of embroidery threads, beads and semi-precious stones. At this point, giving these decorations as gifts had also become part of our tradition, and it was not unusual for us to have only about half of the total number of decorations made left for our own tree. If we lived near family, I would make one for each household. When we lived away from family, we would choose several to gift to new friends we'd made over the past year.

Our Shisha Mirror decorations

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All the shisha mirrors were stitched into place with rayon embroidery thread - a very slippery medium!
This decoration also used metalling embroidery thread, metallic and "pearl" seed beads, and the fringes are made of bugles topped with metal beads

Bugle and seed beads surround the mirrow in this decorations. The round beads at the corners are black hematite.

The stylized leaves surrounding the mirror in this decoration was done using rayon embroidery thread. There's a seed bead edging, with metal beads and plastic leaf beads instead of a fringe.

More metallic embroidery thread, plus turquoise round and chip beads. Considering I found them at the dollar store, I'd guess that these beads are actually dyed howlite, a much cheaper immitation of turquoise.

A closer view of the embroidery details.

The top of the metallic thread fringe was topped with rows of beads which served to both decorate the fringe and ensure it couldn't fall apart.

The hanging loops for all the decorations were made by twisting strands of thread to make a cord.

More shisha decoration details

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Another mix of seed and bugle beads surrounding the shisha mirror. Edged in seed beads, with metal, bugle and seed bead tassles.

Decoration detail.

This one uses one of my favourite stones - goldstone; a man-made stone that is also available in blue and green, though rarer.

Detail of goldstone bead and fringe.

This decorations used "red coral" beads. Though labelled as "red coral," they would be fake versions, as real red coral is found in few places, and there are strict regulations as to how much can be taken, making the real thing rare and expensive.

Learn More About Shisha Embroidery

Blackwork - in colour! - Adapting traditional embroidery patterns

Another set of decorations mixing techniques and updating traditions. Blackwork embroidery is a type of embroidery using a variety of stitches, mostly back stitch, and done almost exclusively in black thread, though some versions are done in red. I adapted patterns for blackwork to fit onto small Aida cloth strips. Some of these were stuffed and sewn into little pillows, while others had cinnamon stitcks sewn in so that they were sticking partly out the top. All included scented oil in the stuffing, and where edged in crochet thread, some with beads.

Scented Sachets

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Green and gold beauty.

Cinnamon and Vanilla scent this ruffled decoration.

An adapted bookmark pattern.

Softly ruffled in No. 20 Mercerized crochet cotton, worked up with a 1.5mm crochet hook.

Seed bead crocheted edging.

Finished with a scalloped edge.

Exploring Blackwork

Learn more about the rich history of blackwork embroidery and the many cultural patterns and designs.

Cinnamon Dough Decorations - Sparkling cookie shapes

Here's a plate of cookies you definitely wouldn't want to eat!

Many years ago, I had made a garland using a combination of purchased beads and beads I'd made using a cinnamon dough. The garland itself broke after a couple of years, but I hung on to the beads for quite a while before yet another move saw them passing out of our possession. The beads had kept their scent for many years.

I love a tree full of lights, so our decorations were usually planned to reflect light. These are no exception, while adding an extra dimension of scent. They were great fun to make and decorate!

A Gallery of Cinnamon Dough Decorations - Just a few of the entire set.

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The craft gems are self adhesive, but they could not stay on the textured decorations without a little help from some glitter glue.

Tiny bows add a festive touch.

Craft gems framed with glitter glue.

Two sizes of similarly shaped cookie cutters were used to make an open wreath shape.

Cinnamon

Temari ornaments - A different take on Japanese hand balls.

Perhaps the most elaborate Christmas decorations we've made were these temari. Temari literally means hand (Te) ball (Mari) and are a beautiful Japanese art. These were the first temari I ever made, using 2 and 2 1/2 inch foam cores. Since then, I've made others with and without hangers on 3 inch balls. I definitely recommend using the larger size to start with!

Temari gallery - A closer look at the different temari patterns

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A 2 1/2 inch core with 2 centres, the 8 pointed stars extend beyond the equator, and are worked to produce a woven effect.

A 2 1/2 inch core with 2 centres, the points of these stars extend beyond the equator, with one side overlapping the other at the points.

A 2 1/2 inch core with 10 centres, each with an 8 point star.

This was one of the first temari I ever made, worked on a 2 inch core. A pattern with two centres, one at each pole, each is made up of a pair of overlapping 4 point stars.

Using a 2 1/2 inch core, this two centre mari has 12 pointed stars.

Another 2 1/2 inch core with two centres, this time with a 16 point star at each pole.

A 2 1/2 inch core with 10 centres, the use of colour turns an 8 point star into a 4 point flower with leaves.

A 2 1/2 inc core with 2 centres, this mari was divided as for an 8 point star, then 4 pointed stars, with points extending almost to the opposite pole, were stitched alternately. Instead of an obi, a contrasting colour was worked around the centre i

Moving up to a 2 1/2 inch core with two centres, this one is a variation of the 8 point star with an extra wide obi.

More Temari

So many beautiful patterns! From the simple to the elaborate, these are sure to inspire.

A variety over the years - A few extra ornaments, some of which were experiments, others are the only ones left from certain years.

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I found a pattern online somewhere that I wanted to try out, and this is the result. I only ever made one of these.

Trying a free pattern I found from the Bernat website.

There was just one year when glow in the dark yarn was easily available. If I'd known they wouldn't be back, I would have stocked up on more!

Cross stitch is not something I do very often, but it does make for some nice, quick decorations.

I'd made a pair of lace framed cross stitch ornaments, but this is the only one left.

A closer look at the design.

Wrapped Stars - Fast, easy and flexible

For our 2010 ornaments, the girls and I worked up some wrapped 8 pointed stars. They turned out to be really fun to make, and there were so many ways to make each one unique! It's a great way to use up small amounts of yarn, as well as crochet thread and ribbon yarn, in all sorts of combinations. We even reversed the wrapping sequence in a few of them, which I found I actually liked better. The open centres can be decorated in all sorts of ways, or be used for a photo.

A gallery of a few of our wrapped stars

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A combination of yarn and metallic crochet thread frame a centre decorated with some scrapbook paper and self adhesive reflective stars.

Ribbon yarn made for a lovely effect. The centre is metallic cardstock paper and self adhesive craft gems.

When I was a child, my mother showed us how to use blown egg shells as a base to glue on various seeds, pulses and spices to make decorations. My childish attempts were rather disastrous, but the memory of how fun they were to make stuck with me. In 2011, we decied to continue the scented route, but wanted to go for a more organic look and feel, and these were inspired by my childhood memories.

We raided the spice cupboard, used purchased shapes and added a touch of shine by using metallic paints to make some rather unique decorations.

Precious gifts! - Friends and family have added to our collection with other hand crafted decorations!

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A gift from a friend who lives near Chicago.

Sadly, the hanger of this decoration broke off when we tried to hang it on the tree after this photo.

One of three stained glass ornaments made by a co-worker of my husband's as a goodbye gift when we moved. We always make sure to them them with lights behind them.

One of three stained glass ornaments made by a co-worker of my husband's as a goodbye gift when we moved. We always make sure to them them with lights behind them.

One of three stained glass ornaments made by a co-worker of my husband's as a goodbye gift when we moved. We always make sure to them them with lights behind them.

Yes, these are hand made, though using a laser cutter!

Yes, these are hand made, though using a laser cutter!

Yes, these are hand made, though using a laser cutter!

Our 2012 Christmas Tree - Plus some overflow decorations

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My daughters decorated our tree for 2012, stuffing on as many decorations as they could. We've long since run out of room to hang all of them on the tree! Near the top of the tree are some small stamped medallions with wolf and eagle motifs, made a

A closer view of some of the decrations. Near the top left is one of our remaining bead medallion decorations.

Another view, including another of our bead medallion decorations.

This year, we've added a new pine garland we acquired, which now has all our temari ornaments on it. Other decorations have been added to some tinsel garlands we've put up, and any place else we can come up with!

Such beautiful decorations! I love how the trees look decorated with all these homemade marvels. Congratulations on LOTD and a purple star, that is awesome. So is this lens.

Glenda Motsavage 5 years agofrom The Sunshine State

Wow...so impressive to watch the evolution of your creativity from Spirals &amp; Balls to Shisha, Temari and beyond! I'm wondering what you've not yet discovered??? So worthy of the Purple Star and LotD - Congratulations!

joancol lm 5 years ago

Nice collection for the Christmas tradition. Congrats on LOTD.

Giovanna Sanguinetti 5 years agofrom Perth UK

I love that tree with all the handmade ornaments. I think I'll encourage my family to join me and make some once the school term ends. We already have some but we haven't made any in a long time. thanks for this inspirational lens. Merry Christmas.

Starzz30 5 years ago

I love your Christmas tree décor you are very talented with making hand made Christmas decorations. Congrats form this lens being LOTD!

missmary1960 5 years ago

Congrats on LOTD. Nice stuff here

anonymous 5 years ago

Love your hand made ornaments, very impressive!

Mary Stephenson 5 years agofrom California

Very pretty. I have made a number of felt decorations for our tree, but it was not because of our child, it was so the cats could have fun. They loved to un-decorate the tree and play with the decorations.

BunnyFabulous 5 years agofrom Central Florida

Wow, you've created so many gorgeous ornaments. I'm completely impressed by the quality of your handiwork.

Lovely tree ornaments! Congratulations on a well deserved LotD! :&gt;)

TOP5PRODUCTS 5 years ago

Love the shisha mirror decorations. Awesome lens.

Heather Burns 5 years agofrom Wexford, Ireland

beautiful lens! congrats!

Fay Favored 5 years agofrom USA

Congratulations on LotD. Good projects to do with the family for gifts.

Nikki58 5 years ago

Some great decorations..love the tree. Thanks for sharing. Oh and congrats on LOTD!

Emily 5 years ago

Congrats on getting LOTD. These ornaments are amazing, and make a beautiful Christmas tree!

webmavern 5 years ago

What great ideas for homemade decorations to cherish for years to come. Congratulations on LOTD!

Bill 5 years agofrom Gold Coast, Australia

Congrats on LOTD. I love these decorations as they are bound to last longer than the cheap plastic ones, yet they still look great and are more environmentally friendly. Our tree has lots of home made decorations too, mostly ones that the kids made at school.

nifwlseirff 5 years ago

Congrats on winning the LotD - beautiful! I particularly love the temari balls, and plan to make some in future.

greenpharmacist 5 years ago

Creative and awesome handmade craft for Christmas!

laurenrich 5 years ago

This is an awesome lens. It is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Bob 5 years agofrom Kansas City

Awesome lens... very interesting and deserving of LOTD.

montanatravel52 5 years ago

Absolutely love your display of "hand made" decorations for Christmas throughout the years, even if they don't all "mesh" into some "fashionable display"! Congrats on LOTD, well-deserved, and beautiful ideas keeping with the whole spirit of Christmas!!

WriterJanis2 5 years ago

Very beautiful. Congrats on LOTD.

Benjamynn 5 years ago

These look absolutely beautiful, by the way congratulations on lens of the day. Happy holidays! :)

faye durham 5 years ago

Congrats on lens of the day. All your handmade ornaments are lovely!

Vikki 5 years agofrom US

Congrats on lotd--really pretty hand made item. Blessed!

darciefrench lm 5 years ago

What an incredible beautiful lens gracing the home page in the LOTD spotlight. I really enjoyed your pictures and write up about home made traditional Christmas decorations. What a gorgeous tree!

PinoyBroker 5 years ago

I will always pass on the tradition of Christmas stockings! Merry Christmas to you!

poutine 5 years ago

I like the small stockings with the year on.

Marianne Gardner 5 years agofrom Pacific NW, USA

Congratulations of LOTD. Such a colorful and cheerful lens. You and your daughters are making beautiful memories.

Sharon Berry 5 years agofrom Michigan

I love the idea of your children helping you make the ornaments. Now that is a real family Christmas. The ornaments are beautiful.

AshleysCorner 5 years ago

Beautiful designs!

Elyn MacInnis 5 years agofrom Shanghai, China

Fantastic! I LOVE all the different ideas here. No wonder you received LOTD. Thank you so much for putting all that effort into this page. I have bookmarked it! Sprinkling squidangel dust down on you!

bofirebear 5 years ago

Lens Of The Day is appropriate for this wonderful collection of decorations. I to am in favor of handmade decorations and spending time together to make them.

Renaissance Woman 5 years agofrom Colorado

Congrats on LotD! I am 100% for a handmade Christmas. The designer trees just don't capture the true spirit of the holidays like something decorated from the heart. Wishing you a beautiful holiday season.

anonymous 5 years ago

Very nice and beautiful gifts.

dawnsnewbeginning 5 years ago

These are the kinds of decorated Christmas trees I love! Nice lens!

Heidi Vincent 5 years agofrom GRENADA

Congratulations on winning the Lens of The Day (LOTD)!!! Exquisite handmade decorations!

Loraine Brummer 5 years agofrom Hartington, Nebraska

Congratulations on LOTD. Blessed!!

Wednesday-Elf 5 years agofrom Savannah, Georgia

Your handmade crafty Christmas Tree ornaments are terrific. Very clever. I did a few of these in the early 'no money' years of marriage and parenthood. :) Happy Holidays!

Michey LM 5 years ago

The crochet staff is incredible versatile, unique, and so great looking. This lens remind me about my Grandma who was a maestro on crochet. I was born after the second war in Europe, so when I was a little girl, parents couldn't buy toys and even clothes. Grandma found a Mama's doll, which show her age, so she re-paint the face of the doll and crochet and entire wardrobe for the doll... I had the most elegant and unique doll in town. Nevertheless to say how many shirts, jackets and so on... she crocheted for me.

So I am the one who really appreciated and love great crochet. Congrats and Blessings!

olmpal 5 years ago

Congrats on your LOTD! So many hand made Christmas decorations! Those awesome Temari ornaments are my favorites!!

Susan Deppner 5 years agofrom Arkansas USA

Beautiful ornaments and an amazingly gorgeous tree! Congratulations on your very festive Lens of the Day!

poldepc lm 5 years ago

congrats on your LOTD...I just love your lens...well done...So many good ideas...

Helene-Malmsio 5 years ago

woo hoo! What a hoot to see it made lens of the day today - CONGRATULATIONS!

Judith Nazarewicz 5 years agofrom Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Beautiful lens! I've always enjoyed handmade decorations!

BarbaraCasey 5 years ago

One of the best lenses I've seen in ages... a well-deserved LOTD. I found a pattern for mittens very similar to your felt stockings and still display them a dozen years later.

myspace9 5 years ago

Congrats on lens of the day and you have a wonderful lens. Have a nice dayl

seosmm 5 years ago

Great ideas and very nice lens!

Marc 5 years agofrom Edinburgh

Gorgeous decorations here! Handmade items are always a joy :)

Laurel Johnson 5 years agofrom Washington KS

What gorgeous handmade decorations!! Your tree is beautiful.

MsBomBalm 5 years ago

Congratulations on Lens of the Day! I am always in awe of reading and seeing what other ppl are capable of...these are all beautiful. Holiday hugs and kisses to you and those you love!

miaponzo 5 years ago

Beautiful crafts! I've made a temari ball before and they are soo time consuming! I just wish I had more time for crafts!!!! I would do them all the time! Blessed!

glowchick 5 years ago

When i was a kid we would make some of our decorations,especially popcorn garland. Thanks for sharing all the wonderful ideas :)

Popping in to visit your wonderful Christmas lens! I can't wait to make some of these beautiful handmade ornaments with my children. Congrats on LOTD Anna!

Eileen 5 years agofrom Western Cape , South Africa

Simply wonderful and so much detail . Love this !

gemjane 5 years ago

I LOVED your lens--I think it's the best one I've ever read on Squidoo! The items are simple enough for many to make, they're creative, you have great pictures and great text. A great variety, so colorful, most use materials that are not too expensive and perhaps are even found around the house, can include the whole family. Just a wonderful lens! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this lens.

JoshK47 5 years ago

What wonderful ideas - thanks so much for sharing! Blessed by a SquidAngel, and congrats on LotD! :)

tfsherman lm 5 years ago

What an impressive level of skill you bring to your Christmas crafts. Temari balls! You really pull out all the stops, don't you!

Stephen J Parkin 5 years agofrom Pine Grove, Nova Scotia, Canada

The ornaments are very pretty and well made and this lens is really attractive. However rotating the photographs automatically is not a good idea unless all of your photographs are exactly the same size. I had great difficulty reading your lens and if I were not a Squid would have clicked away as it is virtually impossible to read and I have had to scroll back to this comment at least a dozen times. Since the average visitor has to be captivated in just 15 seconds this constant jumping around should be avoided. You will lose a lot of traffic due to this and also sales on monetised lenses.

Short_n_Sweet 5 years ago

Beautiful crafts...I wish I had such talent

Silwen LM 5 years ago

Wonderful. I especially liked felted items and wrapped star. I will definitely try these ideas and start my own tradition.

petermahfouz 5 years ago

nice lens, merry xmas from now :)

candy47 5 years ago

I love the Temari ornaments and the garland. Wonderful Lens of the Day. Congratulations!

mrsclaus411 5 years ago

These are lovely.

JeffSawyer 5 years ago

Awesome Lens.Congrats on being LOTD.

ae dc 5 years ago

all so very beautiful! i'm suggesting the crochet garland to my mom, thanks! *Blessed*

andreycosmin 5 years ago

Nice lens

Author

AnnaMKB 5 years ago

@yayas: Many thanks! :-)

Author

AnnaMKB 5 years ago

@ismeedee: Thanks!

yayas 5 years ago

What a delightful collection on handmade Christmas decorations. So happy to have found your page. Congratulations on Lens of the Day!

ismeedee 5 years ago

Beautiful decs and such wonderful handiwork!

BackyardChickenK 5 years ago

Congrats on LOTD! It's a beautiful lens :)

Author

AnnaMKB 5 years ago

@BarbaraSellers: Thanks!

Do you have anything particular in mind when you go ornament hunting?

BarbaraSellers 5 years ago

Congratulations on LOTD! Nice work! I started a family tradition where we each buy one new tree ornament each year, so we go ornament shopping.

Author

AnnaMKB 5 years ago

@cleanyoucar: Thanks!

Author

AnnaMKB 5 years ago

@maryseena: Thanks! I've been off the computer all days, so I just found out about it at the end of the day. *L*